Last week I won a contest put on by The Cozy Nestbox. The prize was three pounds worth of palm nuts. I'd been wanting to get some palm nuts for ages, but I'd been putting it off. So, when The Cozy Nestbox did a contest, I entered. And I won!

The palm nuts came this morning. I was so excited that I immediately washed them and got Digby and Lenore out. Digby and Lenore LOVED them! I got three different kinds--Christmas palm nuts, queen palm nuts, and fan palm nuts. I got the first fan palm nuts of the season, and I'm so glad they surprised me with them. They're just the right size for lovebirds.

At first, Digby and Lenore didn't know what to do with them, so I got them started. They tasted all of them and then played with the biggest one, a queen palm nut, for a while before deciding the fan palm nuts were amazing. They fought over and destroyed the fan palm nuts. They didn't like the Christmas palm nuts quite as well, but I think they were just distracted by the fan palm nuts.

I gave some to Sydney, but she was afraid of them. I also gave some to Irwin, but he wouldn't try them.

Not too big for me!

Lenore with a Christmas palm nuts

Sharing a fan palm nut for a moment

Give it back, Digby!

(I started writing this a few of months ago and just never posted it, so keep that in mind.)

After many months, I have finally figured out how to tell exactly what kind of toys Digby and Lenore will like. I'm still working with Sydney--she finally started playing with toys a couple weeks ago. I've compiled a short list of things found on favourite toys of Digby and Lenore.

1. It must have something natural that can be shredded. The current favourites here seem to be raffia and crinkle paper. Really, though, any kind of paper is good.

2. Wood is a big plus. This is new. Up until this past week, Lenore was the only one who wanted wood, and he only wanted balsa wood. But the other day, I discovered that Digby is a wood fiend. I had a wooden swing that came with a playground that was hanging in Lenore's cage for months because Digby was afraid to sit on it. When I put them in the same cage, I put that swing in there too. Digby loves it and will sit on it everyday, but she also likes to tear of chunks of wood.

3. Bells! The bells, bells, bells, bells. Both Digby and Lenore love bells. There is only one bell in their cage right now, and it gets dinged quite a bit and they fight over it. I should probably put at least one other bell toy in there. (Side note: I just referenced Edgar Allen Poe twice. Yeah, stuff like that makes me happy.)

4. Plastic pieces, preferably small and not too hard, but not too soft either. Lenore likes to just play with them, Digby likes to break them. Digby doesn't like plastic she can't break.

If a toy has any of these things, it will be well received by Digby and Lenore. Nearly all of the toys currently in their cage have something that can be shredded, and they prefer that above everything else.

I decided to start doing target training with the birds. I'm starting with Digby and Lenore. I won't try it with Sydney for a while longer as I'm still trying to teach her to be comfortable around us and take food from my hand.

I actually started with Lenore about a week ago, just "charging the clicker", teaching him that the click means treat. Today, I introduced Digby to that concept. Both of them caught on to that very quickly. I also introduced the target stick to both of them today.

Lenore caught onto the idea of the target stick within three tries. He is very eager to learn and get his treat. Digby, though, is a bit wary of the target stick. A couple of times she walked away from it, a couple of times she just looked at it, and ONCE she bit it. She got a reward for looking at it, but she got a bigger reward for biting it.

Both of the birds seem very willing to learn, especially Lenore. I'm hoping that by teaching Digby this, I'll be able to eventually get her to step up onto my hand. Digby has made a lot of progress since I got her in October, but there hasn't been any change in the past few months, so maybe this will help her overcome whatever fear it is that she has over bare arms and hands. I'm also hoping I can eventually do recall training with both of them.

Digby is my night owl. She is most active in the late evening and that is when she wants to play and spend time with me. She will happily be awake and active and playing until past 11 o'clock if I let her. She prefers to sleep in past 9 or 10 most days.

Lenore is my early bird. He is up as soon as he realizes it's morning, and he wants to go to bed by 9 o'clock at night. If I take too long to cover his cage, he will go to his sleep perch and, before he shared a cage with Digby, would hide himself in his fleece blanket/tent.

Because of these two extremes, having Digby and Lenore in the same cage has been interesting, especially in the morning. The cage is covered except for one little square right beside the perch where Digby and Lenore sleep, which is placed in a way that my bed is in their view. Digby likes to watch me as she falls asleep at night; Lenore likes to chirp at me in the morning.

Every morning, I wake up to Digby and Lenore chirping and being noisy. They have a set pattern in their morning chirps and sounds. Lenore will do a series of high pitched, loud chirps, his excited it's morning chirps. Digby will answer with a noise that sounds very much like a growl. It's the noise she makes when she's irritated. The two of them will go back and forth like this for several minutes every morning. Lenore is ready for the morning, and Digby wants him to be quiet so she can continue to sleep.

After getting back from Kansas Monday evening, Digby and Lenore were in their cage for no more than five minutes when they both decided to take a bath.

 
I recently got a new, stainless steel water dish for these two. It's a Coop Cup. I think it's the 20 ounce size. They love it. (Sydney has a very similar water dish, but I can never catch her in the act of taking a bath.) When I first put it in their cage, Digby went right for it. She got completely in the dish and managed to get the water all over her body and her head. Their previous water dishes, while they were a good size, didn't allow them to get completely in the water.

I haven't posted in a week or so because I've been out of town. I went with my mom and little brother to visit relatives in Kansas. We got back last night.

Digby and Lenore went with us. They did great, and Lenore charmed everybody as I knew he would. Digby, being shy and reserved around strangers, didn't shine like he did, but everybody agreed she was the prettier of the two (which I don't quite get--I think they are equally beautiful). Lenore behaved pretty good and wasn't too bitey. They were very good travelers.

Maggie and Ricky went too. They were both good. I taught Maggie to stay while we were out there. I'm always amazed by how quickly she picks up new things.

It is extremely hot here. The temperature is 96℉, with a heat index of 113℉. Right now it's storming and they rain is very much welcome.

Also, Blogger looks completely weird and has a new layout and look. I do not like it.

I realized today that it has been a while since I did a post devoted entirely to the birds, so here is an update. There isn't much to report, but here's what's going on with them.

Digby is doing great. She still won't step up on my bare skin, but I can pet her, as can my mom. She even let my dad pet her a couple of times. She is getting to be very friendly and is even a little more outgoing than she was. I just can not get over how much she has changed since I got her. I noticed last week that her feathers have become brilliant. I know it has to do with her improved diet.

Lenore, too, is doing good. He insists on me getting him out anytime he can see me. He still doesn't want to play independently when he is out of his cage--we're working on this. He "talks" to me constantly. He's very ornery, but at the same time, he can be quite sweet. He is so much fun to have around.

They are still in separate cages, and probably will be for a while. I'm still looking for that perfect cage for them to share.

On Thursday, I wrote about Digby breaking a flight feather that had blood on the broken end (see this post). What little bleeding there was stopped before I found it. I did not have to pull out the rest of the feather or take her to the vet. I was quite relieved that the broken feather was nothing serious.

But today's story is different. I got Digby out, planning on letting her be out for a while. I had her on her perch in the kitchen while I finished up a few chores. Something spooked her and she flew to the ground. When she landed, I saw she had a broken feather. The feather did not just break off. It broke but was still attached.

 I picked her up and put her back on her perch. I watched her for a few minutes and the feather seemed to be really bothering her. Then she lifted her wing trying to mess with it and I saw blood on the inside of her wing. I took her upstairs so my mom could help me. I put her on the bed and we observed her for a couple minutes. I tried toweling her to inspect her wing, but each time I did, she got very upset. After a couple minutes, I gave her some bird bread to calm her down. She happily ate while we decided what to do.

There aren't very many avian vets in Louisville, and none of them are open on Sunday evening. We do have an emergency vet, Jefferson Animal Hospital, but I am unsure of what they could do. I talked to them once that night Noey died; at the time, they told me all they would be able to do was stabilize her until their other branch that deals with exotics opened in the morning. I am fairly sure that they could have helped us tonight had we needed it. Even though we could have gone to the vet, we decided to pluck the feather ourselves.

We had never done it before, but both my mom and I have read about it in several different places. So Mom got out a small pair of needle nose pliers to do it with. I held Digby in a towel, while Mom held Digby's wing and pulled the feather out (no way was I about to be the one to pull the feather out...it was nerve-racking enough watching somebody else do it). Mom very carefully got a hold of the feather's shaft and pulled. It came out and the bleeding stopped. Digby ran up my arm to my shoulder and sat for a while.

The feather. Notice the break and the blood.

I am very, very thankful my girl is okay. I was prepared to take her to the vet if I needed to, but I feel this is one of those things you need to be able to do if you have birds. The most difficult part of it was not the actual pulling the feather out, but restraining Digby long enough to do so.

Digby is now doing fine. She has already gone to bed for the evening after some cuddling and eating some more bird bread.

I had Digby and Lenore out together again yesterday. They acted better than they did the other night. I let them play on the "big" playgym (see this post). It's not really all that big, but it's big in comparison to their body size and Lenore's little playgym.

I wisely gave them two dishes of food. At first, they each ate at their separate dishes. Then Lenore noticed Digby eating at the top of the gym. He decided to go see her. He climbed up the rungs until he got to the part that was completely vertical and not at an angle. He couldn't quite figure out how to get up there. He watched her for a minute before deciding to return to his food dish.

Then Digby saw Lenore eating. She climbed down from her spot to him and his dish and started eating with him. They took turns picking up food. There was no beak grabbing or foot biting like the other night. Then Digby decided that she wanted to go back to her original spot, so she headed in that direction. Lenore followed her. It was very cute.

Digby decided to scare me today.

I had her in the kitchen with me as I often do, and she was sitting on her perch, watching me and trying to hop onto me if I got to close. This is what she always does. I let her on my shoulder for a few minutes, then put her back on her perch.

She was not content to sit on her perch. She decided she needed to fly across the kitchen. Her wings are clipped, but I'm letting them grow out a little bit (the people who clipped them butchered her right wing). She didn't get much height, but she got a fair amount of distance. When she landed, I walked to her to pick her up and one of the feathers on her right wing was sticking out at a 90 degree angle from her wing. I put her on her perch and before I could inspect it, she smoothed it back down.

After a few minutes, she took off from her perch again, landing in the same spot. This time, the feather broke off and landed on the floor. I picked up her and the feather. The feather had a drop of blood on it! I put her on her perch and went to grab her towel. With my mom's help, I inspected the wing as best I could. Neither I nor my mom saw any blood on her wing, and she wouldn't let us look very much. She hates being toweled (which is really funny because she used to actually like it!) and wouldn't hold still.

Because I didn't see blood anywhere on her and couldn't find the remains of the broken feather, I decided to just keep an eye on her. Fortunately, she never bled and this evening she is being as active as ever.

Upon closer inspection of the feather, it was the one flight feather on that wing that had grown very much. Her left wing flight feathers are actually getting a bit long, but her right wing flight feathers are very, very short. I don't plan on letting her be flighted because our house isn't a safe place for a flighted bird, but I do want her to have feathers on her wings that don't look chopped up.

When this happened, I managed not to panic. I very calmly had her step up from her perch, very calmly walked upstairs, very calmly toweled her. When she tried to bite me, I remained calm. I am very proud to say I didn't panic. Sometimes I panic when things like that happen, but I stayed calm. (Side note: I believe retraining an ex-racehorse has a lot to do with my being able to stay calm. If he freaks, then I panic, then he panics too, but if he freaks and I stay calm, I am able to ride through whatever he does and calm him down as well.)

After allowing them to see each other and talk to each other quiet a bit from the safety of their cages, I decided to let Digby and Lenore meet each other tonight outside of their cages. I put a couple pieces of bird bread (which they have both decided is their absolute favourite food) out and let them both eat it.

They did pretty good together. There were a few times when one of them grabbed the other one's beak. They also took turns trying to getting the other bird's feet. There were a few squabbles, but for the most part they were good.

Digby kept stealing Lenore's food, once when it was hanging from his beak. At one point, Digby jumped off the table for some reason. Lenore followed her. Lenore very obviously likes Digby (I haven't seen anybody that Lenore doesn't like), but Digby seems to be a little unsure.

I think they will end up being fine with each other.

Digby discovered something yesterday. She discovered that being petted is actually pretty awesome.

I had on the birds' favourite shirt yesterday. It has beads on the shoulders that they love to pull off. When I wear this shirt, I do not allow them on my shoulders because of this, but every now and then, they sneak to my shoulder or hop to it before I can stop them. This is exactly what Digby did yesterday. She was very distracted by the bead in her mouth, that I took the moment to pet her. She loved it.

I got her off my shoulder and put her back on her perch. I tried petting her again, thinking she wouldn't let me, but she did. She actually lowered her head so I could pet it and her neck.

(Very poor quality, but you get the picture.)

So far she'll only let me pet her. My mom (her second favourite person) can very briefly touch her beak, something that she has been letting me do for the past week. I think we'll eventually get to the point where my mom can pet her too. I'm just thrilled that she let me pet her. For now, that is good enough.

Currently, both birds are in my room. Lenore is in his cage and Digby is on her T-perch on the other side of the room. They're chirping back and forth. These two are so cute.

Both of my birds seem to have a death wish. They don't understand that the cats could (and in Shadow's case, would) kill them given the chance.

Delilah is fascinated by the birds. She likes to get close to them. She also likes to try to pat them. Lenore has, on more than one occasion, bit Delilah when she got too close.

I thought this was just Lenore's I'm-not-afraid-of-anything attitude, but it seems Digby isn't afraid of the cats either. The other day Digby was on my shoulder. I picked Shadow up to put her in another room and Digby attempted to walk down my arm to Shadow. I stopped her.

Today, TinTin was on the bed and Digby was on my shoulder. Digby hopped onto the bed and walked straight to TinTin. I put my hand on TinTin to stop him if necessary and I watched Digby. She walked straight to his face and bit his whiskers. She didn't stop there. She walked to his foot and bit that too. That was when I picked her up. I put my arm out to pet TinTin and Digby started to walk down it to TinTin, totally unafraid of the cat.

These birds are crazy!

Digby reached, in my mind, two big milestones this week.

The first one was one that I've seen coming for the past few weeks. Last night after I put her in her cage for bed, I left her cage door open while I gave her some new water. I left the room, got her water, and went back to the living room. Digby was no longer in her cage, she was standing on her cage door. This afternoon I decided to see just how willing she was to leave her cage. I opened her cage door and put her t-perch in front of the door. Within two minutes, she was out of her cage and on her perch. She went in when I got close to her, but as soon as backed off, she came back out. When I approached her again, she stayed on her perch and hopped onto my arm.

Tonight, when I put her in her cage for the night, I again left the door open while I got her water. She came out as I expected. It makes me very happy to see her so willing to come out.

The second milestone that she reached is a huge, huge one. She was on her perch and something startled her. She jumped down to the floor. I bent down to get her, but I had short sleeves on so she couldn't just step up onto my sleeve. Given the choice between the floor and my hand, Digby chose my hand! She hopped up onto my hand and stayed there. I also discovered she will let me pick her up using my hand even though she won't step up onto my hand. She's also been letting me pet her on her back and tail a little.

Digby has made huge improvements since I got her, and it seems like lately her behaviour and willingness to trust has been improving by leaps and bounds. One day she'll be totally opposed to something and the next day she'll be happy to try it.

I started the process of introducing Digby and Lenore today. They had seen each other before today, but not for more than a couple minutes at a time.

Yesterday, I put Lenore's cage in the living room. He and Digby can now see each other and talk to each other. I can't leave Lenore's cage in the living room though. Digby's cage is in the only place that Shadow can't get to, so Lenore is only in the living room if I'm in there or if Shadow is in another room with the door closed or outside.

Digby and Lenore chirped back and forth for quite a while. They were very cute "talking" with each other and getting excited at seeing each other.

I introduced the birds to a new vegetable tonight. Broccoli!

Digby took a moment to try it, but then liked it.

Lenore dug in as soon as he saw it. He didn't wait for me to offer it, he just helped himself.

I know I've posted about her improvements before, but she really impressed me last night and today and I want to share how she's doing now. It's been exactly a month since that post (found here), and she has improved more since then.

When I got her in October, I was lucky to just be able to get Digby out of her cage. She would not step up and if you got too close, she would threaten to bite. She wanted very little to do with people. She would eat nothing but seed. And the moment you got within a couple feet of her cage if you had her out, she'd try to fly back to her cage.

Now, she will happily come out of her cage and will even let you know when she wants out. She'll sit by her cage door until you get her out. Last night, she was doing that and I decided to let her out. I opened the door and put her ladder in and asked her to step up. She did so without any hesitation and without being asked twice. Then, rather than just hold on for the ride while I took the ladder out of the cage like usual, she started to walk down the ladder to the outside of the cage.

Today, I got her out before she was acted like she wanted out. She hesitated a bit getting on the ladder, and I had to tell her to step up more than once, but once she was out, she didn't want to go back in. All I usually have to do to put her back in her cage is to have her next to the door and tell her to step up onto it. Today when I did that, she refused. Once in a while she does this and all I have to do is put her on her T-perch and lift that to the door and tell her to step up. So I did that. She refused and backed away from her cage. I asked her again. She turned around on the perch and flew back to my shoulder.

Normally, I don't let my pets get away with not doing what they're told to do, but that was just too cute and she obviously wanted to spend some time with me so I just let her be. After a little while, I tried to put her in her cage again. I had to use the T-perch, but she went, albeit reluctantly.

There are other improvements too. She still refuses to step up onto bare skin, but she no longer growls or tries to bite if you offer her your arm or hand. She will even sometimes sit on my neck (on bare skin) if she's been on my shoulder.

She's also now eating pellets on a regular basis and she'll at least taste anything I offer her. Her personality is starting to come out. I have finally figured out which toys she will play with and which she won't; she prefers shreddable toys.

She's currently singing very loudly in her cage, driving my little brother and nephew crazy.

I've been sick the past couple days and it's driving me mad. I hate laying around and doing nothing. I've also been trying to avoid contact with the birds and Lenore is not happy about it. He's used to me getting him out at least twice a day and he doesn't like being left in his cage.

Digby isn't as unhappy. She wants out of her cage everyday, but I've still been able to get her out because I can get her out of her cage and onto her perch without handling her at all. She'll step up onto a ladder to get out of her cage, and she'll go from the ladder to her perch. Once there, she is content to just sit, watch me, and sing.

Lenore, on the other hand, will not stay on the perch, nor will he stay on the table top playgym he has. He wants to held and petted and he wants scritches. He wants to be loved on.

I'm sick of being sick.

If you've been following along, you will know that I'm trying to get Digby to eat something other than just seed. I've had her for almost three months and have tried several foods. The following is a list of what I've tried:

Pellets
Zupreem Natural: Refuses. She will taste them but will not eat them and throws them on the floor.
Harrison's: Ate half of one. She ignored the rest.
Roudybush: Eats them and likes them! (See the post from 13 January)

Fruits and Veggies
Lettuce: Likes. She prefers the purple or red lettuces, and the must be cut into little pieces.
Collard greens: Will eat. She will eat collards, but not with the same gusto as she eats the lettuce.
Apples: Likes. She requires them to be cut into tiny pieces though.
Green peppers: Eh. She nibbled on it until she discovered the better red peppers.
Red peppers: Likes. She really liked the red peppers.
Cucumber: Also eh. She started nibbling on it when I offered it while I was holding it, but she decided my finger looked yummier and bit me.
Pomegranate: Loves. She surprised me liking these so much.

Other Things
Nutri-berries: Likes. If they are left in her food dish, she will pick out all the seeds. If I give them to her out of her cage, she'll eat the entire thing.
Avi-cakes: Likes. Prefers Nutri-berries.
Sprouts: Will eat. She will eat them, but only if I am also eating and she's out of her cage.
Rice: Will eat. Not her favourite, but she will certainly eat it.
Pizza: Likes. I feel bad for putting this on the list, but this was the first food she ate for me other than seed. She likes pizza, especially the crunchy edge of the crust.
Millet: Loves. She will even take this from my hand.
Seeds: LOVES. This is the reason I'm trying all the other foods. She will happily eat nothing but seeds. Doesn't matter the brand. She'll switch between brands easily.

Today for breakfast I had one of my favourite cereals, Kashi Strawberry Fields. Nothing unusual.

But Digby had...drum roll, please...pellets!

She ate Roudybush pellets. And not just a couple, but a bunch. I was so excited when I saw her doing it, I took a video (with my iPhone because that's what was closest, so the quality isn't great). And then she started acting happy and being cute. <3

And, to make me even happier, she's in her cage eating some right now. :)